Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.

I think you're giving the majority of criminals way too much credit for thinking ahead & planning what they're going to do. I seriously doubt if that happens very much. Many crimes are committed on the spur of the moment, by people who either think they're smart enough to not get caught, or don't think about it enough to care. I can't see the web sites in question having much impact, at least before the crime is committed. Even if by some technical breakthrough you could ID someone likely to commit a crime, you can't legally arrest that person before he actually does it. Last time I checked, Pre-Crime arrests still only happen in the movies. So for crime prevention... no, crime solving... yes.

This! Most criminals aren't that smart. Methodically planning and organizing aren't their strengths.

I realize any impact will be minimal, but I was thinking that perhaps it may make things harder for people who actually plan their crimes, because they will have no control over this aspect of things. Your relatives can submit their DNA for analysis, so you have no control over it - who's gonna be able to keep track of what their 3rd cousins do?

It's fascinating to me that genealogists may become crime solvers in a way.

Probably not.

Countless numbers of people who have their fingerprints on file - either from previous arrests or due to government jobs that require fingerprinting for security and so for - yet still commit crimes and leave their fingerprints behind to be found and matched. Same dynamic.

So you are willing to let DNA analysis what—arrest people before they commit crimes???
Watching any Tom Cruise movies last night???

How do you feel about more stringent gun laws then???

This isn't how it works. She's talking about cases like the Golden State Killer, where he left his DNA at crime scenes, and the police found him by using his DNA to find his relatives in a genealogy database. This led to him even though his own DNA wasn't on file for genealogy or in criminal databases. IIRC the relatives they matched the sample with didn't even know the guy existed, but expert genealogists were able to extend out a family tree and find possible surnames, and then they found a person with that surname who had been living in the area of the crimes at the right time and with the right age and gender, and then they DNA tested him to and confirmed the match.

With more and more people uploading their DNA profiles for health and heritage analysis this becomes an increasingly viable way of identifying criminals. Like, an investigator might go to GEDmatch with a DNA profile from a murderer, and two people pop up as partial matches, and due to the degree of similarity and the age ranges, they know that one's probably a second cousin, the other's probably an aunt. That dramatically narrows the suspect pool.

I have the unpopular opinion that all violent criminals should be castrated. Most importantly they wouldn't be able to reproduce. A lot of women are attracted to the bad boy criminal element so violent men will most likely reproduce unless we put a stop to it. Also the castration will take away their anger and aggression so hopefully they will become more docile and less criminally inclined.

Violent criminals are violent criminals because there is something wrong with their wiring. DNA testing won't stop them from committing crime. What it will do is to get them caught and incarcerated, putting an end to their crime spree. So, it stops further crime in the habitual violent criminal, at least for as long as their sentence runs. It doesn't stop their first crimes.

There has been a weakness in crime stats where they don't move well over state lines, so a criminal can avoid being identified as a serial (whatever he is) simply by continuously moving across state lines and not committing multiple crimes in the same state, For the serial rapist, serial killer, his own DNA will get him identified quicker as a "serial" and get attention focused on him sooner.

Also, DNA has recently caught a couple of decades ago criminals, so they have been removed from society.

The cost of doing DNA will prevent it from being used except for very serious crimes. If you've had a home burglary, you can't even get the police out to take fingerprints. Forget about DNA to catch the thief who stole your kid's bike.

I have the unpopular opinion that all violent criminals should be castrated. Most importantly they wouldn't be able to reproduce. A lot of women are attracted to the bad boy criminal element so violent men will most likely reproduce unless we put a stop to it. Also the castration will take away their anger and aggression so hopefully they will become more docile and less criminally inclined.

There is a reason your opinion is unpopular, and I suspect you've heard all the reasons before. Castrating someone isn't going to stop violent tendencies. All it's going to do is stop someone from reproducing.

And surely you know that women are capable of violent crimes? Ever watch Snapped?

They confirmed it with DNA from his daughter but I don't think it had anything to do with a genealogy site.

Thanks for correction....only remembered it as an invasion of privacy his daughter spoke of... not from genealogy sites.
Btks daughter Kerri Rawson told 20/20 dna came via pap smear.

According to what I've read, LE traced one of BTKs letters back to his church.

They found out I had had annual pap smears and they got a warrant for my medical records,” Rawson explains during the 20/20 documentary. “It would have been nice if somebody had asked me for my DNA. I would have willingly given it.”

Thanks for correction....only remembered it as an invasion of privacy his daughter spoke of... not from genealogy sites.
Btks daughter Kerri Rawson told 20/20 dna came via pap smear.

According to what I've read, LE traced one of BTKs letters back to his church.

They found out I had had annual pap smears and they got a warrant for my medical records,” Rawson explains during the 20/20 documentary. “It would have been nice if somebody had asked me for my DNA. I would have willingly given it.”

I believe it was a letter on a disk though and they were able to trace the disk to a computer at his church and the computer was assigned to someone named Dennis. They then looked in the church's directory and found the name Dennis Rader as a church officer. Then they proceeded from there.

Rader even somehow asked the officer in charge of the investigation if it was possible to trace a computer disk and the officer told him it was not. After he was captured Rader asked the officer why he lied to him and the officer replied "because I was trying to catch you".

Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.